Pat Dollard | Young Americans

Elana Schor - (GuardianUK)

The longstanding row between conservative pundit Bill O’Reilly of Fox News and a liberal rival on MSNBC network has climbed up the corporate ladder, with Fox owner Rupert Murdoch personally interceding in the US television stars’ war of words.

O’Reilly and Keith Olbermann, the antiwar host of MSNBC’s Countdown programme, have clashed openly for years. But Murdoch’s involvement in the spat, reported today in the Washington Post, signals that the boardroom battling has reached unprecedented levels.

O’Reilly and Olbermann have traded personal jabs, but their harshest putdowns centre on Iraq. O’Reilly accuses Olbermann of undercutting the US war effort and savages General Electric, the parent company of MSNBC, for doing business in Iran.

Olbermann often fires back at the Fox host during his programme: “After all the shilling and ass-kissing you did for the administration before this phony war, you are more personally responsible for the 4,000 dead Americans in Iraq than all of America’s corporations put together,” Olbermann told O’Reilly on the air last month.

Murdoch interceded to ask that Olbermann cancel his plans to air footage from a liberal activist protesting in front of O’Reilly’s home, according to the Post. The film was never aired.

Another complaint to MSNBC’s owners came from Fox News chairman Roger Ailes. Olbermann frequently has targeted Ailes, naming him “worst person in the world” in a popular segment with that title and criticising his close relationship with former Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani.

“Clearly [Olbermann] has no viewers except those he gets when he attacks Fox News, and particularly has made himself committed to continuing to attack Bill [O'Reilly],” Ailes said at a 2006 television industry conference.

Ailes threatened last year to employ the Murdoch-owned New York Post newspaper against Olbermann, the Post reported. A Fox News spokesman denied that charge.

Just as Olbermann takes aim at Murdoch, Ailes and other O’Reilly bosses as well as the pundit himself, other Fox News hosts appear to have entered the clash to defend O’Reilly.

During a segment last month on takeaway food, the host of the Fox News programme Red Eye said food delivery men have “one of the most dangerous jobs in the world - aside from Olbermann’s back waxer, of course”.

Fox and Friends, the morning show on Murdoch’s Fox News network, also has criticised MSNBC for allowing Olbermann to anchor political coverage during presidential debates and primary election nights.

However, Olbermann and O’Reilly share the same 8pm time slot on US cable, which amplifies the volume of their feud.

If ratings could determine the winner of the wild TV spot, O’Reilly would prevail. His O’Reilly Factor programme averages about twice as many viewers of Olbermann’s Countdown, although the latter programme is on the rise with younger demographics in the US.